Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Donald Trump’s ‘Captain Underpants’ Campaign

Have you completed the third grade?

If so, this may be why you are having trouble understanding the appeal of Donald Trump.

At Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate, Ben Carson delivered an opening statement about “the abyss of destruction.” An analysis shows he was communicating at the level of a 10th-grader’s comprehension. Marco Rubio, who spoke of “the identity of America in the 21st century,” was also at the high school level. Ted Cruz and John Kasich were at middle school comprehension levels.

And then there was Trump — at a third-grade level:

“We don’t win anymore. . . . We’re going to make a great country again. We’re going to start winning again. We’re going to win a lot. It’s going to be a big difference, believe me.”

This was no anomaly. Some noticed Trump’s peculiarly prosaic prose early in the campaign, but it has become even more pronounced: Simple words. Simple sentences. Simple concepts.

See Donald. See Donald run. See Donald win.

This would appear to confirm polling that indicates Trump draws much of his support from less-educated Americans. “I love the poorly educated,” he said after his Nevada victory this week. This doesn’t mean all Trump supporters are dumb. But he is communicating — deliberately, surely — at a much more rudimentary level than any other candidate in either party.

“He says five things,” Rubio taunted Thursday night. “Everyone’s dumb, he’s gonna make America great again, we’re going to win, win, win, he’s winning in the polls and the lines around the state.”